Trimming Your Dogs Nails

by **Steve** Thu Aug 01 2013, 20:59

Frequently Asked Questions

Trimming Your

Dogs Nails

If your dog lives in the house and is walked on soft grass most of the time, it is likely that you will need to cut his or her nails. A lot of people prefer to take their dogs to the vet or groomer and have a professional cut them, but if you are confident enough to do them yourself there are a few physiological and psychological pointers you should be aware of:

Dog nails are made of keratin; the same material as human nails
The nail contains a blood supply called the quick. This can bleed profusely when cut
Dogs use their nails to hold food, scratch and dig/mark territory

As the above list shows, nails are very important to a dog and should not be overcut to stop a dog using them for any behaviour or to stop them scratching your skin. The following should also be considered when you plan to cut a nail;

The longer the nail the longer the quick, very overgrown nails should be cut little by little over time!
What activity does the dog do? A dog who pulls weights, runs, jumps or digs for rescues etc will need longer nails to aid grip. A service dog may need shorter nails to stop them harming their partner when they must alert them to something.
Have I got the correct equipment? Human nail clippers or scissors will not do the job. Use only dog nail scissors or a guillotine clipper.
Am I able to safely restrain my dog by myself?
If my dog is particularly nervous, will s/he recover from the stress of restraint?
Is my dog likely to bite me if I try to retrain him/her?

If you need to get help to restrain your dog, get someone the dog knows as they will be more relaxed in their company. The easiest and safest way to restrain a dog for nail clipping is to lay it on its side and have an elbow on the dogs neck, being careful not to push down and restrict breathing, and one arm over the body. This leaves the hands free to cut the nails, or if someone else is restraining they can hold the dogs leg still.
Whoever is cutting the nails is then ready to make the first snip.

Gently hold the dogs paw and use your index finger to push any fur out of the way to expose the nail
Using your clippers take a very small portion off the nail
Make sure to follow the natural diagonal of how the nail would wear down if the dog was walking (the diagonal will run flush with the pad, see the image)
You can then use a nail file to file away the sharp point left by the clippers
If the toenail feels soft and spongy STOP – this is the quick. Nails are hard. Quicking will seriously hurt the dog and they will remember this. Dogs with light nails will have an easily seen quick but dogs with dark nails won’t, that is why it is vital to take it slow and only remove small portions of the nail at a time.

Trimming Your Dogs Nails ViewOfQuickForNailClipping

If your dog is totally against nail clipping don’t fret! You can always walk them on rouch surfaces such as tarmac and concrete and foot paths. This will naturally wear the nails down and you won’t need to cut them. Alternatively your vet can offer a sedation in order to cut the nails, but this is for extreme cases.

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